Prescribing Algorithmic Discrimination
Wednesday, April 5th, 2023 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
In-person for students only, virtual for non-students (CLE available virtually only).
Webcast Archive Content
Event Description
The talk will discuss the rise of federally-funded, state-operated prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs), the algorithmic risk scores they generate, the lack of validity of those scores, and their potential to discriminate against various protected classes, including women, racial minorities, and individuals with disabilities and, thereby, provoke poor health outcomes. The talk will conclude with proposed legal and policy solutions intend to mitigate the potential discriminatory impacts of PDMP algorithmic risk scoring.
Speaker Bio
Jennifer Oliva’s research and teaching interests include health law and policy, privacy law, evidence, torts, and complex litigation. She has served as an invited peer reviewer for the American Journal of Public Health, Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law, and Ethics, American Journal of Law & Medicine, Journal of Law and the Biosciences, and Big Data & Society and her scholarship has been published by or is forthcoming in, among other publications, the California Law Review, Duke Law Journal, Northwestern University Law Review, UCLA Law Review, North Carolina Law Review, Ohio State Law Journal, George Mason Law Review, and online companions to the University of Chicago Law Review and New York University Law Review.
Oliva is a United States Army veteran who serves as Senior Scholar at Georgetown Law’s O’Neill Institute for National & Global Health Law and on the Science & Policy Advisory Council of the National Pain Advocacy Center. She is an honors graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, where she was a Public Interest Law Scholar and Executive Notes & Comments Editor of the Georgetown Law Journal. Prior to attending law school, Oliva earned her masters degree from the University of Oxford and undergraduate degree from the United States Military Academy. While a cadet at West Point, she was selected for the Rhodes and Truman Scholarships. After law school, Oliva served as a federal appellate law clerk to the Honorable Stephanie K. Seymour on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit and the Honorable Thomas L. Ambro on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Jennifer Oliva has earned numerous awards for her scholarship, teaching, and service. She was selected as a 2019 Wiet Life Science Law Scholar by the Loyola University Beazley Institute for Health Law and Policy and a 2020 Health Law Scholar by the Saint Louis University Center for Health Law Studies and the American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics. Oliva was the recipient of the 2021 Health Law Community Service Award from the AALS Section on Law, Medicine, and Health Care and the Harry S. Truman Foundation honored her with the 2019 Truman Scholarship Foundation Ike Skelton Award for her commitment to public service.
Prior to joining the faculty at UC Hastings, Oliva served as the Associate Dean for Faculty Research & Development and Director of the Center for Health & Pharmaceutical Law at Seton Hall University School of Law where she was selected as the law school’s 2021 Professor of the Year (Paula Franzese Excellence in Teaching Award) and 2022 Faculty Researcher of the Year. She also spent the Spring 2019 semester as a visiting research scholar at The Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School.
Reading Materials
The Effect of Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs on Opioid Prescriptions and Heroin Crime Rates
Racial Discrimination in Algorithms and Potential Policy Solutions
Event Location
Virtual for CLE viewers, in-person for students ONLY.
Case Western Reserve University School of Law
George Gund Hall
Room A59, Moot Courtroom
11075 East Blvd., Cleveland, OH 44106